Happenings

For many years we have used a material with peppers printed on it, back in the day we cut out little squares of this material and topped our ghost pepper jars with it as a cute decoration. Many of our customers remember this. We no longer do this as it became really hard to cut out enough squares to keep up with sales....and to tell you the truth my hands couldn't take all that cutting, cutting, cutting!

We have aprons made out of that same material and many of you comment how cute we look and you like our theme. We have decided to build on that theme and have had custom hats made for us by https://stacyspinkmartiniboutique.com/. They turned out so cute that we ordered a few more and have decided to have some swag of our own to sell at our shows.

Many of you call us "those pepper people," so we are gradually adding the words ~the pepper people to our products, and down the road want to drop the Treats by T name altogether.

Our new website will be called Gopepperpeople.com. We think this will be a little easier to remember when searching for our products.

We just finished the two day tradeshow in Rochester Minnesota. Day one is seminars and talks about how to increase business through marketing etc, and then later in the day store buyers come by and sample your products and decide if they would like to have you in their stores.

We feel very confident that we got picked up by two stores, one being Tim and Tom's Speedy Market located on 2310 Como Ave, St.Paul,MN. What a cute gourmet type grocery store. Tom talked to Alan and Jake and they took product with them on the spot. Please check it out if your in the area. Oh and if your in Mason City Iowa check out 1910 Grille, Kurt bought a quart and was going to take it back and turn it into something delicious...you could see the wheels churning when talking to him about our product.

We had a great show day two and sampled plenty of people as we went through 13 boxes of crackers. Sales were good as was the weather this year. We met some new entreprenuers and gave them any helpful information that we have learned over the years. Tried some great toffee from Fritz Toffee out of Iowa...wish I would of gotten more. We also discovered Siren Shrub Co, they have sipping vinegars. We bought the basil flavor and mixed it in with Lacroix and gin and had a cocktail that night.....deliciious.

ps, our friends at Cannon Belles Cheese from Cannon Falls, MN. Won the most engaging booth award and we couldn't agree more with the people's choice on this, it's well deserved and these ladies are fun to hang around.

We've got a new jar supplier and new lid supplier, we have switched to a straight sided jar and a gold cap with no brand on it. However when you do something like this you have to buy in bulk, can you say 4,560 jars and 6,000 lids. Tom had to clean out the garage so we could stack all those cases in there.

Our ghost pepper sauce has traveled to Wabasha,MN and is now featured in the Wabasha Treats and Treasure's store, also served at the Turning Waters B&B in Wabasha, MN.

We've been added to our local convenience store called Ziggy's, where they will pump your gas for you, this is a mom and pop shop and they like to promote local.

Like Coffee and Ice Cream? We are now in the Cannon Belle's Coffee and Ice Cream shop(they gave us nice shelf space) in Cannon Falls,MN . These gals also make fabulous cheese and we grow the carolina reaper for their hot pepper cheese.

And lastly we have made it into Loon Liquors Distillery here in Northfield,MN, they use our ghost pepper sauce on their Charcuterie Board(meat and cheese tray).

We have decided to no longer make our Bogie Bites dog treats. As many of you know this product was started and named after our rescue Bogie.

Bogie passed away in April of 2019, we had 4 years and 10 days with this handsome man. I just cannot bring myself to make the treats anymore, they were his favorite. Hope you all understand, our business is not all about profits, our products are close to our hearts.

What an exciting time of year for us. We just got picked up by Just Food Co-op in Northfield, MN and The Peoples Food Co-op In Rochester, MN.

This is the first time we've been able to sell to the public in a store setting. We are excited and humbled that we have been given this opportunity. We hope to expand slowly and be able to to place our product in more co-op's and small town unique markets. Stay tuned, shop small and shop local.

So much has happened in the last few months. I have finally received my wholesale/processing license. What does that mean? It means I can finally sell my Ghost Pepper Sauce to restaurants. I have a couple of local places that are giving it a try....stay tuned, to see how it's used in their menu's. We have become incorporated, I am officialy a true business Treats by T LLC

We have finally found a commercial kitchen to use that is close and reasonably priced. The Owner Steve Perry makes maple syrup under the brand name three river farms. I didn't realize that this was the same maple syrup that I drove 25 miles to a craft show and paid 18.00 for me and Tom to get in to buy a 10.00 bottle of syrup. I should of just looked online....lol. What a small world that I am now renting his kitchen.

We also have collaborated with Imminent Brewing in Northfield, MN and started using their spent grain in our Bogie Bites-Dog treats. The Brewery is dog friendly and will hand out a dog treat along with your favorite beer. We hope to start selling our bagged treats there in the near future.

We are still doing our craft shows, and have changed the name of ghost pepper jam to ghost pepper sauce on our labels. We realized that we are always promoting it to be used as a glze,dip or sauce that it was only appropriate to change the name....same great taste!

It's the last day of May, the pepper plants have been planted, according to last years notes we are only 6 days behind in planting. That's the thing with mother nature, you have to wait till she's ready.

This year I am growing a new pepper plant for the cooking salts I make called the Carolina Reaper. It is suppose to be hotter than the Scorpion pepper I am currently using.

It's a cool 50 degree Minnesota Morning. If calculation are right we should be picking our first red ghost pepper towards the end of August.

We made 11 batches of beer bacon brittle a couple of nights ago, preparing for one of our biggest craft shows. I stirred the pot too fast and the brittle splattered on my hand, well when you have it up to a soft crack at 285 degrees that will leave quite a burn.

Tom wanted to tell people about my hand to get some sympathy sales....lol. We did sell 29 bags. We had a 70 degree day here in Minnesota in November which is unusual, and I think that had alot of people outside and at the craft show. We sold 110 jars of jam, our record so far for a one day show. We also got recruited for another craft show, because they thought we were unique and there was nothing else like our product at their show.

We had alot of repeat customers coming back and telling us they bought from us last year, we love hearing that.

Tom came up with a great idea to give everyone a squeeze bottle if they bought 2 jars of jam, that is how we keep it in our house, because it gets put on everything. I have to say it was a great idea and we encouraged a few people to buy a second jar with this promotion.

Aaahhh...spring in Minnesota. It's snowing here today and I am ordering ghost pepper plants. I believe in shopping local so I order my plants from Jeni at Eco-gardens in Northfield,MN. She always has good quality plants. Yes it's only March, but one has to start thinking about this years crop and pre plan. Because we had such a good crop last year, we are still able to make ghost pepper jam, through out the year. I won't have to turn away customers like years past, because we we're out of ghost peppers. There is always something to do around the house relating to the the business, cut out squares of material, order labels, watch the ads to see if jars or pectin goes on sale, make more Bogie Bites. (Bogie keeps eating up the supply...lol). Happy Spring everyone.